Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Read This Letter to All
1 Thessalonians 5:25-28
25 Brothers, pray for us. · WEB
The close asks for prayer, a greeting, and one thing more forcefully than anything else in the letter.
Brothers, pray for us. Four chapters of reporting his own prayers for them end with a request for theirs — and it comes without qualification or explanation.
Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. The customary greeting of that world, with one adjective added. What made it distinctive in a congregation was who it crossed: slave and free, Jew and Greek, exchanged as equals.
Then verse 27, and its force is unlike anything else here. I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers. The verb is an oath-binding word, and it is the only place in the letter where Paul commands rather than begs — after three chapters of declining to use authority 1 Thessalonians 2:6, he spends it on this.
The reason is not stated, but the letter supplies it. Chapter 4 was written for people who had buried someone, chapter 5 for the faint-hearted and the weak. A letter of comfort reaching only the leadership would have failed at its errand.
And the last line is grace, as every letter of his ends.
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